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Viewpoint: In Global Shift, Poorer Countries Are Increasingly the Early Tech Adopters
Historically, industrial revolutions haven’t been kind to poor people. Despite the potential benefits technology can offer, the immediate impact on the lowest-paid members of society has often been negative. If it wasn’t putting people out of work, then technology was usually endangering them through hazardous working environments or long-term exposure to pollutants. And even today there is evidence that technology-driven economies are favoring just a small group of successful individuals, and thereby exacerbating inequality.
- Categories
- Technology
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Why M-Pesa Failed in South Africa
South Africa's largest mobile phone operator Vodacom has announced it will be scrapping its M-Pesa mobile money transfer system in Africa's second-biggest economy.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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Kenya Revenue Authority Now Targets Mobile Money to Smoke Out Tax Cheats
The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is seeking access to individual and companies' mobile money transaction records in a move that is intended to open a new front in the fight against tax cheats.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech
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Sports Betting in Kenya Lifts Vodafone Mobile-Money Volumes
Kenyans using mobile-money platform M-Pesa to bet on the outcome of sporting events helped Vodafone Plc’s unit in the East African country boost transaction volumes by 48 percent in the past year.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- fintech
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Report: India’s United Payments System to Make Mobile Wallets Redundant
The ongoing push by the Reserve Bank to revolutionise banking through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) will leave mobile wallets redundant, as mobile banking has jumped over threefold in February from the year-ago period, according to a report.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- fintech
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Report: Internet Investors Worried About South African Regulation
South African investors believe regulatory policy is inhibiting investment in Internet companies.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- regulations
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Vodacom pulls plug on mobile money service M-Pesa in South Africa
May 9 Vodacom will discontinue its mobile money service M-Pesa in South Africa after it failed to attract enough support in its slow-growing home market, the telecommunications firm said on Monday.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Drones From Bay Area Startup to Deliver Vaccines in Africa
A Bay Area robotics startup plans to use drones to deliver vaccines and blood for transfusions to hard-to-reach areas of Rwanda — with some help from UPS.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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